Why does political campaigning in Japan mainly consist of waving hands in white gloves from vans?

It’s mainly because so many other kinds of campaigning are restricted. No knocking on doors or ads are allowed, online social media campaigning was banned until this election, and even the number of leaflets one candidate can post is limited. The fact that it is usually just accompanied with “Vote for (name)” with no policies at all from the van’s loudspeaker makes me think that those things actually suit the politicians with their complete lack of ideas of how to improve Japan, but it also of course might have contributed to the lack of actual policies.

According to yesterday’s International Herald Tribune, the white gloves stand for clean government and the laws restricting campaigning were meant to level the playing field between rich and poor candidates.